Above: from New York City Ballet's new Angelin Preljocaj ballet SPECTRAL EVIDENCE; photo by Paul Kolnik.
Saturday evening October 5th, 2013 - This evening's triple bill at New York City Ballet opened with a handsome performance of an early Christopher Wheeldon work, SOIREE MUSICALE. Originally made for a School of American Ballet workshop, this Romantic-style ballet was danced by the Company for the first time earlier this year. Set to Samuel Barber's SOUVENIRS Ballet Suite, the work evokes visions of Balanchine's LA VALSE though without the tragic denouement of that piece.
The composer had this to say about the suite:
"In 1952 I was writing some duets for piano to play with a friend, and Lincoln Kirstein suggested I orchestrate them for a ballet. Commissioned by the Ballet Society, the suite consists of a waltz, schottische, pas de deux, two step, hesitation tango, and gallop. One might imagine a divertissement in a setting of the Palm Court of the Hotel Plaza in New York, the year about 1914 - the epoch of the first tangos; Souvenirs, remembered with affection, not in irony or with tongue-in-cheek, but in amused tenderness."
Christopher Wheeldon has taken this suite of now-orchestrated dance numbers and given us an elegant, witty dancework in which a youthful cast found the Wheeldon style much to their liking: classic steps woven together with just enough quirkiness to keep things interesting, and possibilities for characterization in what is, bascially, an abstract ballet.
The opening waltz/sextette - spaciously danced by Sara Adams, Lauren Lovette, Brittany Pollack, Harrison Ball, Zachary Catazaro and Taylor Stanley - sets the ballroom a-swirl with lively combinations and gallant partnering motifs. A charming and slightly daffy sister act follows, with Kristen Segin and Indiana Woodward in the Schottische; their partners arrive - Ralph Ippolito and Peter Walker - but the girls seem to be having too much fun on their own to take the boys seriously.
Brittany Pollack in a scarlet frock holds no fewer than twelve men in her thrall for the Tango. The ballerina, she of the wonderful smile, had some of her most entrancing stage moments to date in this piece: it seemed tailor-made for her. In the Two-Step, Sara Adams, Kristen Segin and Indiana Woodward danced lyrically while Taylor Stanley gave a dazzling performance, with effortlessly executed jetés. Blonde and princely Harrison Ball held his own in competition, continuing to impress as an up-and-comer.
Pristine technique and a distinctive personal glow gave Lauren Lovette's performance in the Pas de Deux a special appeal; Old World courtliness and the face of a matinee idol marked Zachary Catazaro's performance as Lauren's cavalier. Their duet was the expressive heart of this lovely ballet, which ends with a vibranty-danced finale for the entire cast.
Above, two of the SOIREE MUSICALE featured artists: Brittany Pollack and Zachary Catazaro in a Henry Leutwyler photo
This Wheeldon ballet (Paul Kolnik's photo of the ensemble, above) makes me want to ask for more from the choreographer's NYCB catalog: I would love to see KLAVIER, SHAMBARDS, EVENFALL and THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE again.
Having heard varying reports on the new Preljocaj (a Paul Kolnik production photo, above), I was not sure of what to expect. The two prior works by this choreographer that I have witnessed - LA STRAVAGANZA at New York City Ballet and L'ANNONCIATION at Cedar Lake - have both impressed me in their theatricality, their skillfully limned narratives, and in their unusual quality of movement aligned to the music.
Above: Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild in the Preljocaj ballet, photographed by Paul Kolnik
The new ballet's title SPECTRAL EVIDENCE draws from a legal concept which held sway during the Salem witchcraft trials:
"Spectral evidence was testimony that the accused witch's spirit (i.e. spectre) appeared to the witness in a dream or vision (for example, a black cat or wolf). The dream or vision was admitted as evidence. Thus, witnesses (who were often the accusers) would testify that "...Goody Proctor bit, pinched, and almost choked me," and it would be taken as evidence that the accused was responsible for the biting, pinching and choking even though they were elsewhere at the time."
The Salem trials, a dark and despicable chapter in the early history of America, are largely forgotten today. But Mr. Preljocaj conjures up the helplessness of the victims and the ruthlessness of their judges in this compelling dancework. The majority of those put to death during this Reign of Terror were women; in the ballet we find four of them - seemingly innocent yet strangely feral in their white nightgowns slashed with red. [The handsome costumier Olivier Theyskens discusses his work on this ballet here]. The men wear severe black suits with clerical collars, their hair slicked back and their skin aglow with an almost vampiric lustre.
Four white set pieces are manipulated by the dancers as Mark Stanley's magnificent lighting creates the harrowing scene of the women's torment and eventual destruction. An ominous feeling hangs over the stage from curtain-rise: the choreographer turns to some of John Cage's most eerily timeless music; the score veers from plaintive to thunderous, by turns evoking the lonely fate of the victims and the demonic power of their judges.
Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild have central roles in the ballet: a pas de deux laced with high-risk partnering motifs in which Tiler is subjugated, followed by Rob's triumphant solo in which he appears to lip-sync his victory song over evil while in fact seeming himself to be evil incarnate. His powerful performance was an uncanny personal tour de force. The ballet's other men - Adrian Danchig-Waring, Amar Ramasar and Taylor Stanley - are implacable and proud, and they fairly ooze sadistic sensuality from every pore. Georgina Pazcoguin and Gretchen Smith were superb in their tormented innocence. Megan Fairchild, our perfect Aurora and Swanhilda, switched gears completely here and made a vivid impression: she was - in fact - bewitching.
The work does have a false ending: the four women are burned alive in white boxes which transform into their glowing coffins. One expects the curtain to fall on this harrowing scene, but - like Giselle - they rise from their graves as a gentle song wafts their souls to an unknowable fate.
I found this work so absorbing, and I am greatly admiring the masterful way in which Mssr. Preljocaj drew together the elements of music, setting, lighting and costuming to create an organic work which has the added result of giving us something to think about in terms of religious radicalism and the manipulation of a populace thru fear and falsehoods. We see these elements still at work in society today.
Another Preljocaj work is soon to be seen in New York City: the choreographer's own Company will bring his ballet And Then, One Thousand Years of Peace to BAM from November 7th thru 9th, 2013. More information here.
Above: a Paul Kolnik image from NAMOUNA, A GRAND DIVERTSSEMENT with Ashley Bouder, Sterling Hyltin, Sara Mearns and Tyler Angle in the foreground
Alexei Ratmansky's NAMOUNA is a very long ballet built on a flimsy plot (boy seeks/meets/kisses girl), and set to Édouard Lalo's tuneful but ultimately insubstantial score. The choreographer has contrived a succession of dance numbers performed in decorative costumes and often filled with virtuosic effects. The ballet is of course brilliantly danced by the Company, but for me it has not held up well, and - coming after the powerful Preljocaj - it seemed old-fashioned and over-wrought with pointless busy-ness.
Above: Sterling Hyltin and Tyler Angle in NAMOUNA; photo by Paul Kolnik
That said, the individual performances of the dancers were highly enjoyable, with Tyler Angle as the youthful hero, searching for his ideal and dancing like a Prince into the bargain. Sara Mearns gave a restless sensuality to her complicated solo and Sterling Hyltin brought freshness and grace to the role of the girl who ends up with the guy. In an unexpected cast change, Ashley Bouder stepped into the role of the cigarette-smoking siren and was a complete delight: all the more amazing given the very few hours of rehearsal time she had to nail both the steps and the characterizaton. Abi Stafford, Megan Fairchild and Daniel Ulbricht tossed off virtuoso feats with joyful ease, though their function in the narrative remained a mystery.
As NAMOUNA progressed with one phalanx after another of dancers sweeping across the stage, I found myself drowning in a sea of French perfume. Despite its charms, NAMOUNA passes by without touching the heart or the soul. It was the choreographic clarity and romance of the Wheeldon and the chilling witchery of the Preljocaj that made the evening memorable.